My Story
Hi! My name is Helen, and I am a mother to two busy little munchkins, Leila (5 yrs old) and Sebastian (3 yrs old). They are the light of my world, and my inspiration for starting Earth Baby Services! When I became a mother, it became apparent to me how much a loving, caring support network in those early weeks and months is so crucial for starting off motherhood right. I realized quickly that I have a passion for helping and supporting other new mamas, and found myself offering support in many ways! I also evolved as I learned more as a mother, and I realized that helping to protect our environment was becoming a passion of mine. There is so much damage being done to our planet, and anything we can do to minimize that and spread the word that it is possible to make a difference has become a passion of mine. As a Certified Go Diaper Free Potty Consultant and Postpartum Doula (DONA trained and working towards certification), I can provide new mothers and their families with a range of services to help adjust to parenthood, and I strive to do this with earth-friendly practices as much as possible.
My EC Journey
I first learned about EC several years before I had children myself. A close friend of mine had practiced EC with her two kids and they were out of diapers at 13 months and 18 months. I thought that was just brilliant, so I always had it in the back of my mind that this is something I wanted to try out. We bought ourselves cloth diapers before the baby arrived, and we were ready! When my daughter, Leila, was born, we had some breastfeeding challenges, and the first few months were tough! But by the time she was 3 months old, I felt ready to try out EC and I decided to give it a shot. I loved it! We did lots of diaper-free time, she was signalling very early on and we were having success. I read Ingrid Bauer’s book Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene and Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff. These books gave me a lot of background to the philosophical aspects of the practice of EC. But I was missing some practical instruction and we started to have our EC challenges as Leila’s signals started to become too subtle for me to pick up on (which is super common with older babies!). Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that too much naked time without a high success rate, results in irresponsible naked time (and lots of pee on the floor!!!). We also had a few upsets to our routine along our journey, including an extended 6-week trip to Europe, moving house and eventually a new baby arriving! These big changes resulted in several potty pauses, and potty training became a bigger challenge than I anticipated. By the time Leila was 21 months, I finally reached out for more help, and discovered Andrea Olson’s book The Tiny Potty Training Book. By this point, though, the peeing on the floor habit was deeply entrenched, and the new baby arrived when she was 2 years old, so we still had setbacks, and eventually I went to a Potty Specialist to help with our journey. This was a huge support, and after a reset over Christmas, we finally wrapped up potty training by about 2.5 years old, and we haven’t looked back since!
When my son, Sebastian, was born, it was a whole new and different EC experience! We started pottying him at just 8 weeks old, and that very first time I put my newborn over the sink, he peed!!! I was amazed because it had taken weeks of putting my daughter over the potty before we finally had a catch. I was very excited about this, and before long, I found Andrea Olson’s book Go Diaper Free. This book filled in all the missing pieces for me in my earlier reading on EC, and suddenly I understood how I had gone astray with my EC journey with Leila. I started to have a lot of success with babe #2. This boy wasn’t at all like my first, and by 5 months old, he could hold his pee for hours! He didn’t like being in a wet diaper, and I started to really make sure to change his diaper right away if we missed a catch and this kept his sensitivity to wetness intact. By 6 months we were only missing 1-3 catches a day, and catching most of the poops. We also discovered the sumo-style diaper by about 7 months, and this allowed us to “simulate” naked time without actually risking pee on the floor as you can see/feel right away when baby is wet. This style of diaper also makes night time pottying very easy as diaper changes are quick and quiet (most importantly!). After a few weeks of nighttime EC, he started to stay dry about 50% of the time overnight and by 9 months he could hold it through the night all together without pottying (about 30% of the time). We have had some ups and downs in our journey and a few short pauses, but overall it has been such a fun, positive experience. I felt so passionate about it, that I decided to take the Go Diaper Free Coach training and started to spread the word about EC!
My hope is that I can help to grow the EC community in Calgary (and surrounding areas), and introduce parents to this beautiful practice. Helping babies with their elimination needs allows them to be more comfortable and confident in their communication, and this in turn, eases the transition into potty training. Whether it be EC or non-coercive potty training, whether you are motivated by the environmental benefits, not having to change poopy diapers or just enjoy a new way of connecting with your child, I am excited to share the benefits of early potty learning with you and your families.
When my son, Sebastian, was born, it was a whole new and different EC experience! We started pottying him at just 8 weeks old, and that very first time I put my newborn over the sink, he peed!!! I was amazed because it had taken weeks of putting my daughter over the potty before we finally had a catch. I was very excited about this, and before long, I found Andrea Olson’s book Go Diaper Free. This book filled in all the missing pieces for me in my earlier reading on EC, and suddenly I understood how I had gone astray with my EC journey with Leila. I started to have a lot of success with babe #2. This boy wasn’t at all like my first, and by 5 months old, he could hold his pee for hours! He didn’t like being in a wet diaper, and I started to really make sure to change his diaper right away if we missed a catch and this kept his sensitivity to wetness intact. By 6 months we were only missing 1-3 catches a day, and catching most of the poops. We also discovered the sumo-style diaper by about 7 months, and this allowed us to “simulate” naked time without actually risking pee on the floor as you can see/feel right away when baby is wet. This style of diaper also makes night time pottying very easy as diaper changes are quick and quiet (most importantly!). After a few weeks of nighttime EC, he started to stay dry about 50% of the time overnight and by 9 months he could hold it through the night all together without pottying (about 30% of the time). We have had some ups and downs in our journey and a few short pauses, but overall it has been such a fun, positive experience. I felt so passionate about it, that I decided to take the Go Diaper Free Coach training and started to spread the word about EC!
My hope is that I can help to grow the EC community in Calgary (and surrounding areas), and introduce parents to this beautiful practice. Helping babies with their elimination needs allows them to be more comfortable and confident in their communication, and this in turn, eases the transition into potty training. Whether it be EC or non-coercive potty training, whether you are motivated by the environmental benefits, not having to change poopy diapers or just enjoy a new way of connecting with your child, I am excited to share the benefits of early potty learning with you and your families.
My Doula Journeyla
I was very lucky when my first baby was born, as I had a wonderful mother-in-law (truly she is! I'm not just saying that!) who offered to come and stay with us just before baby arrived. She offered to be my Labour Doula as well as staying for the first few weeks and offered a huge amount of postpartum support. I didn't know at the time, but she was filling the role of Postpartum Doula as well. I had no clue how much I was going to need all that loving support that she provided!
When Leila was born, I had my own breastfeeding challenges and she was there every step of the way providing emotional and physical support, much more than I could have received from my side of the family. It was incredibly powerful. I soon realized how crucial this was for helping us in our journey as we became parents. From making delicious, nutritious meals, to helping with breastfeeding (and finding the right support when we needed to call in the experts), to learning how to wear my baby, and even supporting us emotionally when things got hard. We would have been lost without her, and I so appreciated that support at such a special, sensitive time in our lives. When my second baby was born, this type of support was even more of a necessity. The challenges that come along with having a toddler in the family when a new baby arrives were more than I could handle. Again, my mother-in-law was there supporting us, and when she had to leave two weeks after Sebastian was born, she felt I wasn't ready to be on my own (and I wasn't!). So, she hired another Postpartum Doula to come in and support us for another few weeks, and that experience left such an important impact on me. We bonded right away, and amazingly, she supported us while carrying her own 2.5 month old baby! That was a very special time, and I'm sure, is part of the reason this passion was born in me. I knew I wanted to be able to help other new mamas with that kind of support!
I started out with providing a small helping hand to friends when their babies arrived, but didn't quite realize yet that this was going to be a calling. It wasn't until after my second baby was born, and I started job hunting for a role to get back into my engineering career that I thought about starting my own business, and thus, I decided to become a Postpartum Doula and a Potty Consultant. I am proud to be helping new mothers when they need it most.
When Leila was born, I had my own breastfeeding challenges and she was there every step of the way providing emotional and physical support, much more than I could have received from my side of the family. It was incredibly powerful. I soon realized how crucial this was for helping us in our journey as we became parents. From making delicious, nutritious meals, to helping with breastfeeding (and finding the right support when we needed to call in the experts), to learning how to wear my baby, and even supporting us emotionally when things got hard. We would have been lost without her, and I so appreciated that support at such a special, sensitive time in our lives. When my second baby was born, this type of support was even more of a necessity. The challenges that come along with having a toddler in the family when a new baby arrives were more than I could handle. Again, my mother-in-law was there supporting us, and when she had to leave two weeks after Sebastian was born, she felt I wasn't ready to be on my own (and I wasn't!). So, she hired another Postpartum Doula to come in and support us for another few weeks, and that experience left such an important impact on me. We bonded right away, and amazingly, she supported us while carrying her own 2.5 month old baby! That was a very special time, and I'm sure, is part of the reason this passion was born in me. I knew I wanted to be able to help other new mamas with that kind of support!
I started out with providing a small helping hand to friends when their babies arrived, but didn't quite realize yet that this was going to be a calling. It wasn't until after my second baby was born, and I started job hunting for a role to get back into my engineering career that I thought about starting my own business, and thus, I decided to become a Postpartum Doula and a Potty Consultant. I am proud to be helping new mothers when they need it most.
